Why is Vice President Pence Smiling So Often?

It has been rumored that Vice President Mike Pence has dreamed of being the president of the United States since he was 17 years old. In reality his devout Christian beliefs have taken a priority in his life. His own words confirmed that at the presidential nominating convention in 2016 where he said in his acceptance speech where he introduced himself as ‘a Christian, a Conservative and a Republican.’ That order should have been a message. Just not all of the time.

The truth is Pence is a smart politician who holds Christian beliefs but willingly will defer them to reach the presidency. And so he sat silently when in the Oval Office while Trump had his explosive confrontation with Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi. That’s not the first time he has kept his mouth shut. Pence has been a longtime, aggressive advocate of trade deals between the U.S. and foreign countries and been a supporter of NAFTA and during his time in the House, he voted for every free-trade agreement that came before him.

The Constitution sets specific grounds for impeachment. They are “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.” To be impeached and removed from office, the House and Senate must find that the official committed one of these acts.

We don’t know what charges will be brought against Donald Trump by special counsel Robert Mueller but it is easy to list the possibilities.

1. Collusion with members of the Russian government may not be illegal but being a traitor is the grounds for impeachment. The Constitution defines treason as specific acts, namely “levying War against [the United States], or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

2. The Emoluments Clause in Article I of the Constitution prohibits Trump from taking any money at all from a foreign state. His ownership of a hotel where dignitaries and heads of state regularly stay and use the ballroom for events when visiting Washington D.C. is an obvious benefit to his family business.

So is Mike Pence smiling to just be friendly or is he awaiting his moment of being sworn in as the 46th president? It’s scary but very likely.

Those Damned Lefties are to Blame!

Those radical leftists have harmed our nation irretrievably. They, through the Democratic Party, passed laws that have given those poor stupid working class Americans benefits that have clearly harmed America in ways that cannot be appreciated. With the exception of President George W. Bush’s Medicare Modernization Act all those wild eyed commies are to blame for those legislative acts that have obviously destroyed this great country.

I did the research to learn of the laws they passed.

Under President Franklin Roosevelt.

Social Security Administration. That is the law that created

-Old age insurance for retirees 65 or older and their spouses

-Unemployment compensation funded by a tax on employers

-Aid to families with dependent children and the disabled

The Fair Labor Standards Act. That is the law that established a minimum hourly wage and maximum number of hours on a work week and set rules for the employment of those under the age of 18.
Established the National Labor Relations Board to hear testimony about unfair practices.
Created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)to provide insured loans for home buyers
Created the Securities and Exchange Commission to supervise the stock market.
Created the Food Drug and Cosmetics Act (FDC) that requires manufacturers to provide the ingredients of their products.
Created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which protects bank deposits.

Under President Harry Truman segregation in armed forces was banned. Truman was the first president to propose that all Americans have health insurance.

Under President Lyndon Johnson three law were passed.

Civil Rights Act of 1964
1965 Voting Rights Act
Medicare and Medicaid amended to the Social Security Act on July 30, 1965.

In December 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Medicare Modernization Act, which added outpatient prescription drug benefits to Medicare.

Under President Barack Obama.

The Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act (EPA) prohibits sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same establishment who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions
The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) providing health care for most American at affordable prices.

What do you suppose those lefties will do next? Are they likely to provide low cost college educations? Or even worse they might provide real re-training programs for those who have lost their jobs as the result of automation?

Damn those lefties. They keep trying to help their neighbors.

The Drama King brings more excitement to Cable News

Donald Trump’s TV show, The Apprentice, was big hit. Today he tried to reignite the excitement as he had television cameras in the oval office as he verbally spared with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer. His supposed purpose was to obtain their support for a border wall with Mexico. He knew they would say no but his real purpose was obvious to me. He wanted all of his supporters to know that he is doing everything in his power to obtain the $5 billion in 2019. He told the world he would shut down the government to get his way. He actually said he was “proud to shut down the government for border security” telling Schumer you can blame me for the shutdown. “I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down — I’m not going to blame you for it.”

The next step in this soap opera will be the days before the shutdown date, December 21. We can all expect more drama starting December 20 and beyond.

An interesting feature of the show was Vice President Mike Pence who said not on word during the entire program. He sat there like a statue.

Where is the great negotiator in this spectacle? He is nowhere to be found. Sadly we will be burdened with this president for two more years.

The difference between America’s aristocracy and British Royalty

There is no difference. We all just viewed a week long burial ceremony for a past president of the United States. Many of us, especially the media, treated George H.W. Bush like royalty. It should be important to note that the founding fathers of America abhorred the royalty of Great Britain. Terms like “your excellency” and “your highness” were specifically rejected by congress as words to be used in addressing the president of the United States. The title of “Mr. President” was decided to be sufficient.

Fareed Zakaria wrote an interesting opinion piece in the Washington Post about the things we all can learn from the WASP class that has managed the United States from its founding. In that article he pointed out that “the old WASP aristocracy did have a sense of modesty, humility and public-spiritedness that seems largely absent in today’s elite.”

For those of you not familiar with the term WASP. It is an abbreviation for White Anglo Saxon Protestant.

My answer is that in public America’s aristocracy (meaning the rich and powerful) takes the positon that they know what is the best for the rest of us mere mortals. Absence of that earlier more modest behavior does not make them royalty.

Zakaria did not grow up in the United States and is obviously blind to the fact that America’s aristocracy promised change for over 200 years but nothing changed. The rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor. Non-white Americans continuously face discrimination as they have throughout the country’s history. That has not changed with the Trump presidency. The only thing that has changed is the names and faces.

The Bush family was and is still part of that WASP culture and so are the Clintons, the Bidens, the Newsoms (California’s next governor), the Garcettis (mayor of Los Angeles) and almost everyone else in leadership you can name.

Stupidly we, the proletariat, keep sending the same people to Washington and expecting a new outcome. Hillary Clinton seemed to think that just running for president would give her the job. Donald Trump simply saw the opportunity to convince voters that he would lead America to a new place.

Trump’s style has continued to convince Americans that their lives will be better under his leadership. He is just an outsider but is also among the rich that have no real concern for American lives or America’s place in the world. Trump is a WASP from a wealthy family who has done a better selling job of his brand of “he will be helping the rest of us.”

Democrats will control the House of Representatives – Now What?

It was definitely a Blue wave in Orange County California.

That county immediately south of Los Angeles was the bastion of the Republican Party. It was a mostly middle class (Anaheim and Santa Ana) to the ultra rich (Laguna Beach and Newport Beach). Then came the changing demographics of Latinos, African Americans, and Asians who had managed to save enough money to buy a home in those comfortable suburban communities of Orange County.

So while there are some members of the minority groups that have supported GOP philosophy, a growing number rejected the obvious bias against non-whites that is a hallmark of the Republican Party. Donald Trump is the personification of White supremacy. The image that Trump exemplified was rejected by a majority of voters in that county.

Most likely that image of White supremacy enabled the Democratic Party to win control of the House of Representatives.

Still, the well established Republican Party majority states, that are in the less populated middle America and southern regions, rejected some of their Democratic senators. Trump’s campaign of fear of minorities and immigrants worked well in those states. Everyone should read Bob Woodward’s book titled Fear to understand how successful Trump has been.

The question now is what will the Democrats do with their new found power? The many caucuses within the GOP prevented the passage of needed legislation when they held control of the House. If those kinds of groups do not compromise in the Democratic Party we will continue to see a lack of legislation in the coming two years.

Malibu Fire November 9, 2018

The entire city of Malibu California was evacuated. A stream of cars headed south to Santa Monica.

And what did President Trump say about the fires in California? He blamed the fires on forest mismanagement and threatened to withdraw related federal funding.

It is obvious to me that he hates California because it is dominated by the Democratic Party. This is the state that is most resistant to Donald Trump and everything he stands for.

Donald Trump’s march to autocracy has been stalled

For definition purposes an autocracy is a system of government by one person with absolute power. I believe that is Donald Trump’s objective.

There are many different examples of autocratic governments in today’s world. The best examples are Venezuela, Cuba, Belarus, Eritrea, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, China, and North Korea.

As I have voiced in my last posting there is very evidence of Trump trying to become America’s first dictator. He is using his power of executive order to remake American law to suit his objective.

Loss of control of the House of Representatives in yesterday’s election will slow and hopefully stop Trump’s objective. With 222 Democratic Party seats in that chamber that party’s control is razor thin. They needed 218 seats to gain control.

Donald Trump is a wily individual and those opposing his march to autocracy will find his determination difficult to block. In his day after the election news conference he said, “It was very close to a complete victory.”

Trump’s firing of Jeff Sessions today is one more step in his drive for absolute power.

The Führer is Coming – “Heil Trump”

Donald Trump seems to believe he has the power to override the United States constitution by executive order.

We are seeing a man trying to become America’s first dictator. He believes he can end birthright citizenship. By executive order he will decide who is an American. He is now putting soldiers on the border and soon will have them marching through our streets. He will soon decide that he alone has the power to appoint all judges without senate approval. He will soon determine abortions will be banned by executive order. He will decide your sex. He will decide what businesses will exist. He will have absolute power.

Unless stopped by the congress in November, the congress will pass only the laws that he wishes.

It took just one year for Adolph Hitler to rise from chancellor to permanent dictator of Germany.

In an ever faster manner Donald Trump will, by executive order, dismantle this democracy. Sooner than you expect it to happen, he will declare himself president for life.

The sad thing about this is that a majority of Americans are in support of our coming Führer.